Reasons to explore the map.

[tales of the banuk]

I think the game is lacking content overall dispite my love for the game I find myself ending up with nothing to do and I end up restarting my runs just to loot and such all over again my suggestion would be procedural generated bunkers and supply caches that can be found with the short wave transmitter but the catch is there's 3-4 supply caches in each region and a randomized bunker that change location with blizzards much like beach combing in order to access the bunker you need a region specific punched card found in 1 out of the 3-4 supply caches and when a blizzard hits everything moves and you have to find the new location to access it not only would this allow loot specific to these bunkers to be added but it also balances itself and gives you a reason to go outside and explore without having to restart the run.

[Lexilogo]

First of all, welcome to the forum!

 

Personally, I don't feel the problem of there not being enough to loot. Besides the really significant collectables like Ash Canyon's technical backpack, collecting & transporting the good loot from all the best loot spots on the island to safehouses would surely take 50+ hours, more if you're taking opportunities to collect things like hides/meat/coal along the way. And from there, there's still a lot of work to do to establish safehouses, harvesting things like fuel, scrap or water, bringing resources to Bleak Inlet to stockpile bullets, making a bunch of Improvised tools, and so on. I try to make a network of forward operating bases all over the island, and that's a process that can take hundreds of hours.

It's true that eventually, the "regular" loot runs completely dry and you're mostly just playing with the renewable resources and whatever lootable resources don't Decay. There's a lot that I would change about Decay rates if I could, but fundamentally, these things are supposed to run dry. TLD isn't supposed to be about infinite survival, it's supposed to peter out your options as the days go by and eventually you'll run out of them.

 

I do understand that the early game looting experience is a lot more engaging than late game survival, though. Maybe trying Misery would help? That way, runs don't stagnate for too long and every fresh run is a manic looting experience in its early segments.

I also do think there's something to be said about TLD lacking direction in Survival mode. I know that Bleak Inlet has the cannery machines and all the other mini "pilgrimage" goals, but that's because I've been around to see those updates when the devs showed it off. A new player could easily end up spending all their time in Mystery Lake, and it would be nice to drop them more hints that there's really good stuff to find if they go looking. And not all those pilgrimages are created equal, Blackrock's loot is a bit too weak overall and IMO places like Keeper's Pass getting a unique tool variant or something as a reason to go there would be nice.

[The Feng Hunter]

There is plenty of loot.

Your reason to explore the map is boredom. Boredom is the number one killer in a stable, long-term survival situation.

Have a good day. 💜